Lifestyle & Culture

Organization Fixes Bikes, Grooms Youth Workers

With loose chains, pedals, bike frames and other tools of her trade hanging above her head, Natalie Feliciano, 21, was fixing a flat tire.

“You don’t see a lot of female mechanics,” said Feliciano, who, at 16, started out as an intern at the East Village branch of Recycle-A-Bicycle and stayed put.

Her bosses are proud to say that Feliciano, now an assistant manager, is part of the Recycle-A-Bicycle family. They fix bikes. They also try to steer youth onto a solid path. From locations in Brooklyn, Queens and the East Village, Recycle-A-Bicycle hosts several community-based programs. There’s the Kids Ride Club, Green Jobs Training Program and internships designed to teach 14- to 18-year-olds bike mechanics, a strong work ethic and workplace etiquette.

“If you can figure out a bicycle, you can figure out other problems and situations,” said Brendon Brogan, 26, head mechanic at Recycle-A-Bicycle’s East Village branch.

Getting hired at Recycle-A-Bicycle provided then 16-year-old Feliciano, whose parents were short on cash, to buy her own cell phone. In general, for many interns who live near the Avenue C address, which is near an East Village public housing development, the program provides them with a place to go and earn a positive experience. “It shows them the right path and to do something constructive with their life, instead of hanging out on the streets all day. It allows them to interact with other people from all over the states,” she said.

Mechanic Brogan is from Detroit and attended arts school in Minneapolis. Their commercial customers also hail from many places. The interns, including Aron Helfet, 15, come from all five boroughs of New York City.

“I do a lot of riding and I used to ride to school every day, so why not learn how to fix my own bike?” said Aron, a resident of the Upper West Side and one of the shop’s summer 2012 interns. “I figured I would get more, real hands on work experience here than I would in a retail store.”

Brogan is glad to hear that. The internship, he said, “gives them confidence: working with their hands, problem solving and dealing with people.”

For Feliciano, those are thing that make her job “awesome … It’s pretty chill here. Not many people work here, so we’re all really close. There’s a family vibe,” Feliciano said.

She has had a steady stream of work. Over the past year alone, Recycle-A-Bicycle has refurbished 500 bikes, some donated and some salvaged from local dumps. Salvaging 1,200 old bikes removed 36,000 pounds of metal, rubber and other bicycle materials from the waste stream, group leaders said.

The Kids Ride Club, in total, pedaled 10,000 miles and, according to the group’s calculations, burned more than 1.5 million calories. Recycle-A-Bicycle has attracted its share of supporters, including the patrons who buy the bikes that are donated to the organization, then stripped, re-chained, re-treaded, oiled, painted and sold back to riders.

Twentysomething East Village shop manager Patrick Tomeny, who wouldn’t give his exact age, describes Recycle-A-Bicycle as a movement that goes above and beyond.

“What I really like about Recycle-A-Bicycle is the way it transcends boundaries,” Tomeny said. “We work with students from all walks of life, and teach them a skill that almost every student appreciates.

“While most students treat what they learn casually, other students really get into the culture. But, regardless of how they approach what they learn, they are learning good skills that can be applied in other areas of their lives.  Bicycles are for everyone.”

On Twitter @MayaEHarris.